well I did, and they told me to goto a genius bar or applestore.
talk about fobbing me off over a 12.99 download, I have never heard of anything like this before

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Interesting. I requested help via online iTunes Support about this very same problem, and within 36 hours (during the Easter weekend, no less!), they had emailed a reply and added a free replacement copy of the Upgrade to my iTunes Store download queue. They also told me the name and location of the downloaded file, so that I can back it up and restore it myself if my machine ever crashes again.

Interesting. I requested help via online iTunes Support about this very same problem, and within 36 hours (during the Easter weekend, no less!), they had emailed a reply and added a free replacement copy of the Upgrade to my iTunes Store download queue. They also told me the name and location of the downloaded file, so that I can back it up and restore it myself if my machine ever crashes again.

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I suppose it depends which apple numpty is helping you, managed to solve the problem without their help

The reason was that the iTunes Store keeps track of downloads, and only lets any given user download a particular file once per purchase. Since I had already successfully downloaded and used the upgrade once in the past, it would not allow me to download it a second time.

In the case of lost music, Apple's canned response for such a situation would be to pay for the lost track a second time, thereby unlocking permission to download it a second time. (Although apparently it is possible, with a strong enough sob story and a friendly enough customer service representative, to convince them to bypass that policy.)

Unfortunately, that canned response will not work with the January Software Upgrade, because the iTunes Store also doesn't allow you to pay for the upgrade a second time if their records indicate that you've already paid for it once in the past. Thence the reason why you are totally at the mercy of Apple's customer support to take care of you if you hadn't backed up the file yourself prior to a computer crash.

i had this problem a couple of days ago and it wasnt easy getting it sorted.. heres what i had to do as told by them

1. Report problem in itunes purchase history - didnt work as was downloaded to long ago the 1st time.
2. buy the update again and they will refund me for it - didnt work as your only allowed to download it once with each account apparently.
3. i was then given this link to try it this way http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=271872604&s=143441 - didnt work as it takes you to same place as itunes store page
4. They allowed my account to re download everything that i have bought including all music, software update, tv shows etc - this did work but took some time to get everything!

i was emailing one person at apple throughout the whole thing and she was very helpful.

try emailing iTunes Store <iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com>

This is the last email that they sent me...

Dear ......,

I understand this page gives you the same prompt you've been receiving. I know this must be very frustrating, and I have a fix for this issue right now.

The iTunes Store allows a one-time redownload of all your purchases should you lose them. Since this was just the one item, I thought it would be better to repurchase it for a refund, but since it isn't working I have used it to repost this item to your account.

Since the one-time exception has been used, I strongly recommend backing up all your data. There will be an article with back up instructions later in the email, and there will be information on where to find the file for this software to back up, as well.

Follow these steps to download the available items:

1) Make sure you're using the latest version of iTunes. It can be downloaded free of charge from the iTunes website:

4) Enter your account name and password, then click Check. Your purchases should begin downloading. If you receive an error message while downloading, try again after turning off any firewall or web-accelerator software that you may have installed.

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